Henry Powle (1630-1692)Born: 1630 at Shottesbrooke,
Berkshire
Speaker of the House of Commons
Master of the Rolls
Died: 21st November 1692 at Quenington, Gloucestershire

Henry Powle was born
and brought up at Shottesbrooke
in Berkshire, being the second son of Henry Powle Senior of Shottesbrooke
Park who was Sheriff of Berkshire in 1633, by his wife Katherine,
daughter of Matthew Herbert of Monmouth. His brother, Sir Richard Powle, was
MP for Berkshire in 1661, was knighted in 1661 and died in 1678.

Henry matriculated
from Christ Church, Oxford on 16th December 1646. He was admitted to
Lincoln's Inn on 11th May 1647 and became a barrister in 1654 and bencher in
1659. He first entered public life on 3rd January 1671, when he was returned
for Cirencester to the Pensioners' Parliament. At the time, he held property
at Williamstrip and Quenington in Gloucestershire and was usually described
as of the latter place. Powle first appeared in debate in February 1673 when
he attacked Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury's practice of issuing writs for
by-elections during the recess without the Speaker's warrant. As a result of
the debate, all the elections were declared void on 6th February 1673.
Subsequently, he opposed the Declaration of Indulgence. He was not anxious
to extirpate papists, "but would not have them equal to us". To
Protestant dissenters, he was willing to grant a temporary indulgence, but
not to repeal all laws against them since Queen Elizabeth's time.

Powle soon fully
identified himself with the opponents of the court. He declined to support
the King Charles II's claim to the dispensing power. He promoted the passing
of the Test Act in March 1673. In the new session in October, Powle led the
attack on the proposed marriage between the Duke of York and Princess Mary
of Modena and the King, at once, directed a prorogation. But, before the
arrival of black rod to announce it, Powle's motion for an address was
carried with 'few negatives'. A week later, another short session opened.
Powle advised the withholding of supply till the grievances connected with
Papist favourites and a standing army were redressed, and he led the attack
on the 'villainous councillors', assailing, in particular, Anglesey and
Lauderdale on 27th October and 3rd November. Next year, he specially
denounced Buckingham and had a large share in driving him from office. In
May 1677, Powle vigorously urged the wisdom of a Dutch alliance. When the
commons sent an address to the King dictating such an alliance on 4th
February 1678, Charles indignantly summoned them to the Banqueting House at
Whitehall. After their return to the house, Powle stood up to speak, but Sir
Edward Seymour, the speaker, informed him that the house was adjourned by
the King's pleasure. Powle insisted, so the speaker sprang out of the chair
and, after a struggle, got away. On their re-assembling five days later,
Powle declared that the whole liberty of the house was threatened by the
speaker's conduct. In May 1678, when Charles sent a message to the house to
hasten supply, Powle once more insisted on the prior consideration of
grievances. Powle supported the impeachment of Danby, but in the agitation
connected with the pretended discovery of the 'Popish plot', he took no
important part. It was in this year that Powle inherited the family estate
at Shottesbrooke from his brother, but he preferred his Gloucestershire home
and it was sold within twenty years.

Powle was returned for
both Cirencester and East Grinstead in Sussex, in Charles's second
parliament, which met on 6th March 1679. He elected to represent Cirencester.
Seymour, the speaker chosen by the commons, was declined by the King. Powle
denied that the King had such power of refusal and moved an address
"that we desire time to think of it". During the discussion that
followed, "Serjeant Streek named Powle himself as speaker, but was not
suffered to proceed, as it might mean a waiver of their rights".
Finally, Serjeant Gregory was elected. The new parliament pursued the attack
on Danby. Lyttleton and Powle led the matters of the House of Commons with
the greatest dexterity and care. Meanwhile, Barillon, the French ambassador,
anxious to render Danby's ruin complete, had entered into correspondence
with Powle and other leaders of the opposition. Of Powle's influence and
abilities, Barillon formed a high opinion. "He is a man," Barillon
wrote, "fit to fill one of the first posts in England, very eloquent
and very able. Our first correspondence came through Mr. [Ralph] Montague's
means, but I have since kept it by my own and very secretly". Powle,
like Harbord and Lyttleton, finally accepted a pension from Barillon of five
hundred guineas a year.

After Danby's
committal to the Tower of London and Charles's acceptance of Sir William
Temple's abortive scheme of government by a new composite privy council of
thirty members, Powle was, with four other commoners, admitted to that body
on 21st April 1678. Four days later, James, Duke of York, wrote to Colonel
George Legge, "I am very glad to heare Mr Powel is like to be advanced,
and truly I believe he will be firm to me, for I look on him as a man of
honour". To the new parliament, which was called for October 1679,
Powle was returned for Cirencester. But parliament was prorogued from time
to time without assembling and Powle, acting on Shaftesbury's advice,
retired from the council on 17th April, after Charles had declared, at a
meeting of it, his resolution to send for the Duke of York from Scotland.
Parliament met at length in October 1680. Powle at once arraigned the
conduct of the chief justice, Scroggs, who had just discharged the grand
jury before they were able to consider Shaftesbury's indictment of the Duke
of York. In the renewed debates on the Exclusion Bill, Powle did not go to
all lengths. "The King," he urged, "has held you out a
handle, and I would not give him occasion to say that this house is running
into a breach with him". Yet, in the proceedings of December 1680
against Lord Stafford, he took a vehement part.

Although returned for
East Grinstead to Charles's Oxford Parliament, held on 20th March 1681 and
28th March 1681, Powle thenceforth took little share in politics till the
Revolution. The interval, he is said to have spent in the practice of law.
But he had other interests to occupy him. He was a member of the Royal
Society and was probably, for part of the time, abroad. At the Revolution,
he, at once, gained the confidence of King William III. On 16th December
1688, he and Sir Robert Howard held a long and private interview with the
Prince at Windsor. When William called together, at St. James', a number of
members of Charles II's parliaments and common councilmen, Powle attended at
the head of 160 former members of the House of Commons. On their return to
Westminster to consider the best method of calling a free parliament, he was
chosen as chairman. He bluntly asserted that "the wish of the Prince is
sufficient warrant for our assembling" and, on the following morning,
he read addresses to William, praying that he would assume the
administration and call a convention. To the Convention Parliament, Powle
was returned, with Sir Christopher Wren, for the borough of New Windsor, and
he was immediately voted, on 22nd January 1689, to the Speakerís Chair
over the head of his old opponent, Sir Edward Seymour.

Powle's speech on the
opening of the Convention exercised much influence on the subsequent
debates. As speaker, he congratulated William and Mary on their coronation,
on 13th April 1689, and presented, to William, the Bill of Rights on 16th
December 1689. Powle was summoned, with seven other commoners, to William's
first privy council and, on the remodelling of the judicial bench, when Hall
was appointed Justice of the King's Bench and Sir Robert Atkyns Chief Baron,
Powle, on 13th March 1690, received the patent of Master of the Rolls. His
patent at first ran 'durante beneplacito,' but on the following 14th June a
new one was substituted, bearing the phrase 'quamdiu se bene gesserit'.

So long as the
Convention sat, William constantly relied on Powle's advice. When he laid
down his office at the dissolution of February 1690, he was allowed, even by
his rival Seymour, to have kept order excellently well. Powle was returned
for Cirencester for William's first parliament, which met on 20th March
1690, but was unseated on petition. Powle thereupon devoted himself to his
duties as Master of the Rolls and successfully claimed, in accordance with
precedent, a writ of summons to attend parliament as an assistant to the
House of Lords. He spoke in the upper house in favour of the Abjuration Bill
on 24th April 1690, yet wished the oath imposed sparingly and only on office
holders. He died intestate on 21st November 1692 and was buried within the
communion rails of Quenington Church in Gloucestershire, where a monument
was erected to his memory. He is there described as Master of the Rolls and
one of the judges delegates of the admiralty.

Burnet said of Powle's
oratory, "When he had time to prepare himself he was a clear and strong
speaker," but Speaker Onslow deprecated the qualification, declaring
"I have seen many of his occasional speeches, and they are all very
good". Powle's historical, legal and antiquarian knowledge was highly
esteemed. With the aid of John Bagford, he formed a large library of
manuscripts and records. A few of these now constitute the nucleus of the
Lansdowne collection in the British Library. Other portions were dispersed
and were, for a time, in the possession of Lord Somers, Sir Joseph Jekyll
and Philip, Earl Hardwicke. Powle's arms were placed in the window of the
Rolls Chapel and also of Lincoln's Inn Hall. His portrait was painted by
Kneller. Powle married, first, in 1659, Elizabeth, daughter of the 1st Lord
Newport of High Ercall. She died on 28th July 1672 and was buried at
Quenington. His second wife was Frances, a daughter of Lionel Cranfield, 1st
Earl of Middlesex, and widow of Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset. By his
first wife he left an only child, Katharine, who married Henry, eldest son
of Henry Ireton, the regicide, conveying to him the estates of Quenington
and Williamstrip. Powle was subsequently involved in lawsuits over the
property of his second wife.